spare wheel pain!

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kjhoskin

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My GF has an 1.4TDI as her company car, she’s only had it for a month or so, and despite my nagging doesn't keep the owners manual in the car, its to big and bulky according to her! Anyway disaster struck yesterday when she was leaving my house she had to swerve to avoid a couple of cretins walking 2 abreast in the road (it’s a very narrow lane down here in Cornwall) Anyway she clipped a stone and punctured the tire wall of her front left tire. Now without the owners manual trying to change the tire was fun! First where the bloody hell is the spare!!!?, she didn’t know, this is where the owners manual would have come in handy! Anyway after routing around I came to the conclusion that there isn’t a spare just a can of tire filler and a compressor, again without the manual we gave up and called the RAC, lucky it’s a company car so it’s not really her problem. After waiting nearly an hour for the RAC to turn up, the chap said there isn’t a spare and as the tire wall had been punctured (pretty bad as it happens) the filler would be no good so the car would have to be towed to her home some 15 miles away along very narrow lanes, oh the fun! Anyway after nearly two hours the tow truck arrived and the car was lifter onto the truck and taken away. All in all this took from 17:30 to she finally got home at 22:00 and all because of no spare bloody wheel!!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr! Lucky this happened a few meters fom my home and not in the middle of no where! But it was still a pain, the tow truck had to reverse down a lane just wide enough for it for nearly 2 miles!:(
 
oh yeah its a 1.4 TDI SE, in some red colour that looks to me like brown! with blue interior only my GF could have that colour scheme! Apart from the spare wheel incident and a VERY stiff gear box especially reverse, which has seemed to have fixed itself, strangely! It’s a very nice car, turns some heads although this might be down to it being brown!
 
Is the color Castle Red?? I liked the look of this colour in the brochure but when I saw a sample I was put off as the color reminded me of my Mums Allegro many years ago.

As for the spare wheel, there is a no-cost option now of having a space saver instead of the can of filler - wish I'd known before ordering ours. After hearing your story, we might have to see about buying a spare anyway.

Almost a 1.4SE in Merlot Red, Biege interior, 16" 5 spoke alloys, DIS, Open Sky, Elec rear windows.
 
Really?

[:0]...You mean I could have had a proper spare wheel, for free, instead of a useless can of sticky shaving foam....?...

Now, if I had a penny for all the things my Audi dealer didn't tell me.....
 
yep it is castle red or should that be Brown! I'll pass the info about the spare wheel on to my GF, she spends all her time as a drug rep down here in cornwall so I can see more punctures on the horizon!
 
kjhoskin-welcome and good luck with the spare saga!..

Will your GF appreciate you grassing her up-a drug rep eh?. Do the police know about her antics?.;)

Does she ever visit Tesco's......

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver
 
My dealer said my car would come with the filler kit - but it turned up with a wheel - and I was momentarily happy. He did not mention the wheel as an option.
 
The Car is a Lease Plan car so I might get her to mention to lease plan and her manager about this, as its a bit ****e driving around the lanes down here without a spare wheel. Lucky shes in Tenerife this week on a buisness jolly so it should be sorted before she gets back. It would have been a pain if she was at work as normal today.

the reps do use Tesco car parks a fair bit as it happens! lol
 
See-more proof that all the best A2 owners use Tesco's in some shape or form!.

So what's your opinion of the A2, and why did the GF choose that over say, a BMW compact etc?.

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver
 
I like the A2 and I suggested she got one. It was the best car on her list, there were the usual astras, mondeo's, Lagunas, etc but as her patch in Plymouth and Cornwall she needed something small. so it was out of the A2 or the Golf 1.9 TDI and the A2 was a lot cheaper on the tax front as its emissions are lower. BMW compact will come in to play if when she gets promotion, but then agasin so does the TT ;o)
 
The -no spare wheel' policy hadn;t concerned me until this thread with the damaged tyre wall - I hadn't thought about that.

Oh well, maybe next time I'll get a more boring car that has a spare wheel!

MartinW - Dolphin Grey 1.4SE
 
I think the spare wheel or filler option only came into force around July time when all the prices were dropped and the specs rejigged. I must admit I thought we were going to be getting a spare wheel as it said about a compressor but it seems you get this with just the can of filler. Might have to have a chat with the dealers & show my displeasure at missing out on the CC/met paint option & see if we can get a wheel as recompense.

Almost a 1.4SE in Merlot Red, Biege interior, 16" 5 spoke alloys, DIS, Open Sky, Elec rear windows.
 
Am just getting the hang of the site, and am delighted with the A2!

A warning to those who do not have the spare tyre - the michelins fitted to our A2 are only available to order (next day unless you have your puncture before 09:30!). If you use the gunk the tyre cannot be repaired so you need a replacement.

The main reason for the A2 is the previous 206CC had an aerosol instaed of spare. Luckily when the wife had a puncture :( there was one tyre available in the midlands :)(result of a cancelled order) or the car would have been off the road for 24 hours:(. You may want to check availability of tyres - turns out there are very few manufacturers who make 185/50VR16s.
 
I did manage to sweet talk my dealer into letting me have a collapsible spare wheel after reading this topic:D.

They usually retail for approx £200 with the compressor. There's a picture of the spare & compressor on the A2OC now. UK gallery page 14.

1.4SE petrol in Merlot Red, Biege interior, 16" 5 spoke alloys, DIS, Open Sky, Elec rear windows.
 
Just picked up my car this week (ex-demo Dolphin Grey 1.4 SE) with the ityre inflator/compressor was missing ... something the dealer missed even after their 'extensive' 110-point check :(
Just as well I didn't get a puncture ... a can of foam and nothing to pump the tyre up with.

BTW ... I checked up on the price of the collapsible spare and was shocked at the price of over £200. Apparently you can get a standard steel space-saver spare and tyre for something approaching £60-80, but would it fit in the boot area???
 
Tino,

Did you specify the spare wheel when you ordered the car? A spare is not standard although the collapsible spare & compressor is a no cost option.

1.4SE petrol in Merlot Red, Biege interior, 16" 5 spoke alloys, DIS, Open Sky, Elec rear windows.
 
The car is ex-demo, and came with the spray stuff. At least I get more usable boot space, but it's nice to have a proper spare, even if you just keep it in the garage in case of emergencies (somehow I always seem to get a flat tyre on my driveway first thing in the morning from some nail or screw that punctured the tyre the day before)

Anyway I have a Fiat Barchetta for the weekends which has a 16" space saver .... I'll see how if that fits.
 
For those who have not got one the collapsible spare is a smaller diameter than the real tyres, and a normal space saver (see www.vredestein.com/english/index.html) and expands (so I am told as the wife has not let me try it yet) to the same diameter so the ABS and traction control still work.

I do not think a normal space saver would fit in the boot as the collapsible one is a neat fit, at least the collapsible spare comes with fixings to fasten it down so it does not move around.

Silver 1.4SE Petrol & CC.
 
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